The other one...

Last week I posted one of the paintings I had been commissioned to do. After I finished it, I found out more about the children I have been painting.  It turns out that they are not grandchildren, but are actually great-grandchildren! I think that makes it even more special.

This week I finished the other painting and took them both to show the proud great-grandmother.

The original photograph for this painting showed Abby in a field of sunflowers. She was looking up, but not actually at a flower and the flowers were a little farther away. The wonderful thing about painting is that I can move things around where I think they look best. I guess digital photo experts can do that, too. But, painters frequently 'improve' a scene by choosing what to include (and what to leave out!)

So, I moved the largest sunflower up a bit and closer to her. Here is the underpainting:

I couldn't wait to get started so I began with Abby... I did a little work on the flower and left the soft watercolor area in the center alone for awhile.

I knew I needed something to connect Abby with the flower, so I began suggesting some leaves and tried just to play with the color.

It still looks very sketchy so I began adding more definition to the leaves and some smaller, undefined flowers above her head. I really didn't want your eye to go away from the two foci, but they need to be connected somehow.

Well, I felt like I was getting closer, so I took it to class and asked for a consultation. Many helpful suggestions - including "add some darks; more definition on the flowers in the distance; work on the line that defines her head, neck and shoulders..."

Voila! I love consultations! They get me out of my head and allow me to see with other eyes. I think this works now and Abby's great-grandmother says, "Frame them!"

She will be surprising the family with the paintings, but told me I could post them beforehand.  So, shhh, if you know these children, don't give the secret away.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

You Never Know...

It's been a busy Fall. Not only have I been painting for the SMAL library exhibits, but I have also been asked to paint three paintings for others ...and get paid to do it! Now, this is new for me. It NEVER occurred to me when I began painting for pleasure about 10 years ago, that someday, I would be painting ...and getting paid.

Interestingly, whenever I have sold a painting it has always seemed like a fluke - a surprise that someone would actually want to hang one of my paintings on their wall. I have painted a lot of grandchildren paintings and it's been fun to give them to their families...after I have used them in exhibits.

And that brings me to what happened in September. My husband, George, was giving a book talk (he has recently published a book of essays on the Chesapeake Bay). After his talk one of the attendees came up to me and said she had seen my paintings on display at the St MIchaels Library and she would like to send me some pictures of her grandchildren. Would I take a look at them and see if I could paint them for her!

She emailed the pictures to me ...and I sat with them...  I wondered if I really could do this. I have heard friends talk about how hard commissions can be - it's sometimes very difficult to capture what people think they want.

I finally got to work on them and today I finished the first one. I emailed the image to the grandmother and am waiting to hear how she likes it...

This is the watercolor underpainting

This is the finished painting

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she likes it as much as I do... you never know!

Just Gotta Brag

For the past six years during the month of December, the St Michaels Art League has had a watercolor competition at the St Michaels Library. One of our members endowed an award - the Martha Hudson Award for Excellence in Watercolor. It is a coveted prize and brings out some remarkable paintings - everyone putting their 'best foot forward.'

It's tricky trying to decide what to enter - I can only enter two paintings and they have to have been painted within the last year. I waited until the last minute (as does most everyone) and finally selected two - one of them was Buoy #1 (that I recently blogged about) and the other was Autumn Leaves, an abstract that I had played with several months ago.

All the paintings were brought to the library last Monday and were hung for the judge to see. On Monday night we had our annual Arty Party and the winners were announced...

Ta da...Autumn Leaves won second place! What a lovely surprise - maybe there is an abstract painter hiding inside me somewhere.

Autumn Leaves

Class Exercises

Over the past few months I have subbed in the watercolor class several times. Sometimes when I go I have an idea of what the class is/has been working on. Other times it is a complete surprise.

Here are paintings from three very different classes. This first one was an attempt to draw/paint glass and silver. One of our problems was that the light was coming from several different sources.  We did have a spotlight on the set up, but there was outside light as well. The reflections are confused - it was confusing!

Class study #4    Watercolor & Pastel    $50

But, they were interesting shapes - a good challenge!

-2-

Another day we had a plate of green onions and radishes. I was sitting across the room for this one and could not see it as well, so I made up some of it.  I wanted to work at a different angle - I imagined what it would look like looking down on it instead of looking across at it. The other issue with this one was that the still life had been set up the day before for the Tuesday class to paint. I subbed in the Wednesday class that week, so when I got there the day after ...the radish leaves (which apparently were fresh, bushy and alive the day before) had withered and looked awful.

Radishes and Onions    Watercolor     $75

I like the strong color around the plate upper left and the lost edge at bottom right.

-3-

We paint a lot of flowers in this class - some of the men are not so crazy about that and come prepared with photos of boats on the flower-painting days. I must admit, that after painting a few petals I frequently get lost in a flower and and am ready to tackle a boat myself! 

However, one day my garden was just bursting with color and I picked a large handful of flowers and took them to class. I was in my "simplify" stage that day and decided to tackle the flowers.  I knew if I tried to draw the full vase I would be overwhelmed, so I just isolated a few flowers and sketched them on my paper. I know when use my sketchbook I do well with ink and watercolor washes - being in simple mode, I went with the ink and watercolor and voila...

Flower Study #3   Watercolor & Ink     $75

I'm having fun - and that's what it's all about!

An Update

This is an update from my last blog. I have been tweaking the painting with the buoy, block and net. After spending a sleepless night wondering what was wrong with it, it suddenly came to me that a red buoy is NEVER #1! The BLACK/GREEN buoys are odd numbers and the RED ones are always even numbers. So, this is not a directional buoy, just a fishing one . . . but, I am still wondering why it had a 1 on it.

the mask is removed

Well, I removed the mask which was marking the fish net and the white of the paper just jumped off the page. I knew I would have to tone it down, so I have put a few washes on it. I wanted it to look a little more worn. I also played around a bit with the ropes and then cropped a bit off the top of the painting. It looked a little empty up there. I don't think the original is quite this yellow - gotta work on my camera technique.

"Buoy #1"     10x13    $150

Setting up an oyster still life

This past week I substituted again in the watercolor class. I haven't been for a few weeks so didn't know what the class had been working on. When I arrived, I found a still life set-up waiting to be painted.

Previously, there had been talk of oyster shells  - there they were . . .along with a red buoy, lots of rope and a fish net. Off to the side there was another buoy and an old wooden block pulley. They were not a part of the set-up, but we were told we could arrange whatever we wanted.

I had never painted oysters and thought that might be fun. I began my sketch and discovered that the oysters kept looking like strange blobs. The buoy was colorful and fun to draw, but those oysters just didn't do it for me.  That left the ropes, the other buoy and the block. It seemed more daunting by the minute!

Because others in class were already painting what was there, I needed to rearrange the set-up in my head and get it onto my sketchbook page. I decided to challenge myself by attempting ropes - I drastically simplified them - and then added the block. I left the oysters out entirely.  So, what was to have been an oyster painting ... well, it's not.

The preliminary sketch and the final drawing took a long time so that when class ended I had accomplished this much. If you look closely you can see the block and the fish net.

It's been a busy week - I didn't get back to painting until this afternoon. Actually, that gave me time to figure out how I was going to do the rest - particularly, the net. I thought I needed do a wash over most of the paper and then decided to mask out the net. I painted the block while the mask was drying and then laid in the wash - trying to change its color as it flowed across the paper. I took this photo while it was drying.  It will undoubtedly be lighter when it dries. I may do another wash if it's too light... BEFORE I remove the mask. But, that's all for another day. If it changes dramatically, I'll post it again.

And then, of course, I'll also be asking for comments on a title!

Hey guys, wait up!

A few weeks ago when I was subbing again in the watercolor class our task was to paint 'figures in the landscape.' The idea was to show scale - how the figures fit into the larger world.

Well, I paint figures a lot, but I realized that they are mostly about the grandchildren - not the landscape. I went looking for some photos that might show the larger view and found one of some girls on the beach. The three older ones had gone ahead and the younger one wanted to catch up. I really liked the way everything seemed to point to the distant vanishing point - the shoreline, footsteps and the dune/tree line directing the eye into the painting.

It began as a watercolor and of course, when I got it home and played with it more, it picked up a bit of pastel. After tweaking it for awhile, I was not easy with it and put it across the room to stare at it for a week or so.

Next thing I knew, I found myself picking up my 'corners' (pieces of mat board) and placing them in various ways to crop the painting. Perhaps a square?

Or maybe a vertical?

Last week I took the painting back to class and discussed my dilemma - to crop or not to crop? Where to crop?

OK, here is what I have re-discovered - I don't much like doing landscapes (horizontals). That shape painting is very stable, it really just sits there and stays put. (to me, that can be boring) And then there is the square which can't decide to lie down or sit up. Aha! The vertical shows movement and I find it much more exciting.

I don't imagine that this exercise will be something that I will add a signature to or put in a frame, but it has been an interesting challenge. Comments? Would you crop? How?